How I did it: I love maths and physics. In these areas people speak and think about very simple systems that become complex. I always heard go has very simple rules, but it is very difficult to play well. The great chess player Edward Lasker said once "While the Baroque rules of Chess could only have been created by humans, the rules of Go are so elegant, organic, and rigorously logical that if intelligent life forms exist elsewhere in the universe, they almost certainly play Go."

You have probably heard about this game in films like "A Beautiful Mind" and "Pi". Those triggered my interest.

I also read an article saying that go is so complex, that algorithms are still not good enough to beat humans, as a computer does not "think" deeply enough to visualise strategies between millions and millions.

These ideas strongly attracted me, and I was very interested in learning go.

I didn't have friends interested in learning go, and didn't know anybody in my area interested in it. Don't even speak about finding experienced players.

So to reach my goal I used mainly two tools: yahoo games (where it is possible finding people to play go in real time) and a program called Igowin (which I found through telgo.com thanks to this comment by malweth).

Igowin is good, because you learn using a 9x9 board. This way, the game is not too complex, so the software is powerful enough to beat you every time when you set higher levels, and at the same time you learn from your own mistakes.

It motivated me seeing in YouTube how much do Japanese people love this game, and how serious can it be for them.

I think I have played around one thousand games in two months (games in 9x9 boards are short enough), so even if I am not very good yet, I can say I learned something more than just the rules. It is very tricky at higher levels! But completely worthy.

For the moment I think I have completed this goal. Maybe one day I will do an extension of it (like "becoming 8th kyu", or whatever).

Lessons & tips:

• Learn the basic rules at telgo.com
• Download Igowin
• Learn the basic strategies by playing (and losing) lots of times
• When you feel confident enough, go to Yahoo Games and play with real people on 19x19 boards

Resources:

• Igowin
• Yahoo Games
• Many other websites

Jan 31, 2009, 11:47AM PST | 0 comments